Shemshak Winter Mountain scenery

Shemshak is the name of a touristic village before the revolution which has now turned mostly into a small town. Shemshak became famous because of the famous Shemshak Ski resort and a lot of old wealthy people before the revolution came to Shemshak for skiing and it was a hub for many active people in the past years. It’s located in the heights of central Alborz Mountains 50 km away from north east of the capital. The video that you see is a collection of 6 months of photography and timelapsing in the winter season from November 2020 till April 2021. Shemshak village is located between 2600 m – 2800m above the sea level surrounded by a lot of mountains above 4000m and it has about 6 months of winter. There is a long story behind this short video and these pictures as it happens after the pandemic situation when I moved from Lavasan to Shemshak to be far from the population. I had decided to make a short documentary about this special lifestyle that can happen in Iran and the things that happen in the village, but I couldn’t make it fully and the end result was the aforementioned video. There were two reasons for that. The first was I didn’t have much material and footage to make this video and the second was that I needed a crew and a lot of professional equipment to record this live life happening in the village. So I cut short the plan I had in my mind and only took the most special moments that happened during that winter and I asked our editor to make a nice slide show of the magnificent nature that happens in the high mountains of Alborz. Most of the footage was recorded with my photography camera (Canon EOS-R) and some parts recorded with my Gopro 7 & 8. The videos were recorded at different times during the day and nights with many sleepless nights and if i remember correctly i recorded one of them at 3 am in temperatures of -20 C. The altitude of the area that I took the film was between 2800m up to 4200 m.

Iran Ski Travel — Dogs Playing in Shemshak Village

One of the most amazing parts of this story is about the animals that I met in different parts of the village and mountains which made for such a special bond that I can’t even fully explain it. I always carried food in my backpacks and depending on the mountain I picked to ascend, I gave it to them. Now I have a huge number of friends in the mountains and most of the dogs in Shemshak know me as I climbed many mountains with them. The name of the mountains is Sarakchal Mountains which has three different peaks all above 4000 m, Abak peak 3500m, Kolonbastak peak 4150m and Sichal in Dizin Ski resort with altitude of 3700 m. Also there are many peaks above 3000 m which have local names and it’s not famous among mountaineers and trekkers coming from Tehran and other cities. I had been trekking mostly every day during that time and I have trekked for different amounts of time in different times of day.

Iran Shemshak Nature — Horse eating in Shemshak

I was alone most of the time and for a few times a couple of friends joined me to have a group trek together. I hope you enjoyed watching this video and I wish you could experience something similar in your life and see these dances of the cold in the nature in high mountains with your eyes.

Beside this winter video of Shemshak I have another video from my one-year life in Shemshak which is mostly based on photography. You can check it out on our YouTube channel when you finish watching this video.

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